Hand-held medical devices are used in practice as, for example, blood glucose meters for self-monitoring by diabetics. A plurality of test fields is provided on a spoolable test tape in the tape cassette. The reactive test fields are examined photometrically after application of a small amount of blood sample to determine the glucose content as exactly and reliably as possible. Such tape cassettes are intended to be inserted as a disposable part into a compact hand-held device housing to allow the necessary analytical steps to be carried out automatically and rapidly. In addition to a reliable positioning of the test elements, it also is necessary for practical purposes to ensure that their on-the-spot use is not impaired by excessive noise development. In this context, Intl Patent Application Publication No. WO 2010/046323 proposes using a compact high-speed motor in combination with a reduction gear unit.
On this basis, an object is to further improve known test devices and to achieve a reliable test element positioning with little interfering noise in a compact construction.